Thu, April 10, 4:30 PM
60 MINUTES
Higher Abstraction Electronic Design: Disappearing Lines Between Hardware and Software

RTL for design of electronic systems of 1990's has reached its maturity, and new higher abstraction design methodologies have started to evolve. In early 2000's ESL (Electronic System Level) softly defined a container for system-level modeling and design. Combined with C++ and SystemC hardware description language, ESL started blurring lines between system hardware and software. Continuing this trend, the requirements for today's complex designs and integration of AI applications in design of digital systems has caused lines between hardware and software to completely disappear in many aspects. Several areas where we can no longer draw a line between hardware and software are implementation of algorithms (AI or else) in embedded systems, Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and environments, system software including AI compilers and procedural configuration programs, and virtual environments for verification and design of hardware software systems. This talk is on evolution of digital system design from transistor-level to its present-day status of hardware software integration. We will discuss abstraction levels, hardware description languages, AI accelerators, and integrated methodologies. the impact of this new trend on education, silicon manufacturing, and technology as a whole will be discussed.

Zainalabedin Navabi

Professor @ University of Tehran

Dr. Zainalabedin Navabi is a professor of ECE at the University of Tehran. He is the author of several textbooks and computer-based trainings on VHDL, Verilog and related tools and environments. Dr. Navabi’s involvement with hardware description languages (HDL) begins in 1976, when he started formal definition of a register transfer level HDL and development of a simulator for it. In 1981 he completed the development of a synthesis tool for that same HDL. The synthesis tool generated MOS layout from an RTL description. Since 1981, Dr. Navabi has been involved in the design, definition, and implementation of Hardware Description Languages and design methodologies. His work on HDLs has continued to languages used today for system level design and modeling and language-based design space exploration (DSE) methodologies. New domain-specific languages and methodologies for AI and ML are part of his ongoing work.